


The Downfall of Compassion

by Hippiainen



Series: A Light Lost in the Dark [2]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Gen, aleena mouths off to a sith, it's her hobby at this point, though this was the first time she did it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 05:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13381350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hippiainen/pseuds/Hippiainen
Summary: Guarding a Sith always has its dangers, but having a Padawan to do it seems almost foolish. Despite the known dangers, and due to a shortage of Knights and Masters to do it, the Jedi Council is forced to resort to allowing Padawans to stand watch. And so, Aleena finds herself faced with a duty she'd rather have avoided.





	The Downfall of Compassion

Aleena’s steps echoed along the empty corridor. Despite the heat, rest of the Order hadn’t seeked shelter in the cooler lower levels - they all had their duties, as did Aleena. And as much as she wished she could only be loitering here, that was not the case. If she was honest, she’d have taken lightsaber practice in the oppressive heat over this. Mentally kicking herself for having had such a selfish thought, she continued walking. It was not her place to question the Council’s orders regarding this.

Padawans were not the first choice for guard duty, but even eight years after the Sacking of Coruscant, the Order’s resources were stretched thin and exceptions were made. And what danger was there in guarding a Sith? Some might say plenty, but the Jedi on Lothal weren’t ones for taking risks. Their prisoners were kept safely in the lower levels, caged in steel and locked in stasis. Despite knowing all of this, Aleena couldn’t help but be nervous. After all, it wasn’t for nothing that the Masters warned about the insidious influence of the dark side.

Rounding the corner, Aleena finally found the room she was looking for. No door covered the entrance, and she could clearly see the cage in the middle of the room, the force field shimmering quietly. At the doorway, Talym, a nervous looking Togruta Padawan, was waiting for her, his face filling with relief the moment he noticed her. Without a word, he nodded and hurried past her. Aleena didn’t pay his lack of manners much notice, who could blame him for wanting to leave as soon as possible?

Entering, she walked towards the cage. Aleena could feel the dark side emitting from the frozen figure before she could even see the Sith’s features. The force of the dark side hit her stronger than she had expected, threatening to drown her. Her stomach turned, as she forced herself to take another step towards the cage. It was a cold presence that wrapped itself around the room, a total opposite to the warmth of the light, as well as an unfamiliar presence on Lothal. She breathed out slowly, centring herself, and wrapping the familiar light around her.

She was now several meters from the cage. Close enough that it was a good distance to start her watch, but still far enough that the presence of the dark side was tolerable. Somehow, she would have to endure it for two hours, and there was only one way to be sure that she could outlast the darkness. Sitting down, Aleena wrapped the Force tighter around herself, letting it wash over her. She felt safe, meditation had always helped her connect with the light. Ever since the first time Master Fauren had taught her to meditate, she had felt more at peace whenever she called the light to her. It was as if everything else was far away.

As she sank deeper into the Force, the presence of the light became stronger. She could feel it forming a shield between her and the Sith in front of her, guarding her against his oppressive influence. As always, the meditation expanded her awareness, she could feel the Jedi wandering the halls above her, the trees outside the temple, the summer breeze on her skin. But despite this gained awareness, a black, empty void was in front of her. It sat at the edge of her mind, impossible to truly ignore, impossible to pierce. Aleena couldn’t imagine how the Jedi could help this Sith find his way out of the darkness, and she didn’t envy the Masters in their task.

The first half an hour ticked by slowly, and as the seconds turned to minutes, the dark side broadened, revealing different shades. Not all as dark and depressive as the first onslaught, but still emotions a Jedi should never have to encounter this close, let alone feel themselves. There was the inevitable hatred and anger that felt overwhelming, but Aleena could feel the fear, the pain, and even the thirst, that emitted from the Sith. The pure discomfort that the long stay in stasis caused for the Sith.

Now that Aleena could see all the different tangles in the Force, it became impossible to ignore them. No matter how she tried, the Sith simply wasn’t a horrible ball of hatred, but a being with sentient needs. Needs that the Jedi were denying him in hopes that they might help him. But how would this ever convince the Sith that the Jedi weren’t a threat? That they truly wanted the best for him?

She tried to push the thoughts back, it wasn’t her place to question the decisions of the Council. They knew better than her after all, their combined wisdom far outweighing her knowledge.

But despite this, she couldn’t ignore the Sith’s pain and suffering. She tried, tried to be the good Jedi, tried to continue meditating. After all, she still had a duty to guard him. But as soon as she sank back into the Force, it all came back in waves, overwhelming her.

Her throat hurt, the thirst making her try to swallow, anything to ease her dry throat. Her muscles ached, the tension in them reaching to the tips her fingers, held extended for hours, so they could no call upon the dark powers around them. Her connection to the Force hampered by the blinding light all around the Temple.

Aleena snapped out of the mediation, but the pain lingered for a moment. Her arms felt like they had been held up for hours. She flexed her fingers, hoping that the momentary stiffness would depart them. Glancing at the immobile Sith, she couldn’t help but feel sympathy for him. If his body felt like that already, what would it feel like when he’d be freed. Freed only to talk to the Jedi, to be expected to be thankful for a small stretch and gratefully receive the wisdom of the Masters. All that only to be put back into stasis.

Aleena shuddered, it all seemed so inhumane, not something the Jedi should do. This treatment would hardly make him sympathetic to the Jedi and be willing to listen to reason. It was wrong of the Jedi talk about compassion, and then not show it. Maybe if she did… Maybe the Sith would remember that and let the Council help him heal, to find the light.

Rising up, Aleena walked to the console with determined steps, her decision having been formed before she even realised it. A few pushes of the buttons and the force field dissipated, now only the cage standing between her and the source of darkness.

The Sith dropped from the field, his hands barely in time to break the fall. Aleena couldn’t help but to stare at the figure on top of the force field generator, the Sith looking like an ordinary human being.

Still numb from his long stay in stasis, the Sith ran his fingers through his hair, moving the dark locks that had fallen over his eyes during the drop. Finally opening his eyes, the crimson eyes shattering the illusion of his ordinarity, a grin spread onto his face.

“The Jedi Council has gotten awfully young since I last had the pleasure,” the Sith’s voice was slightly hoarse, but the words coming from a small translator attached to his cage were mechanical and smooth. Aleena was glad for the translator, as otherwise his words would have been incomprehensible to her.

“I’m –”

“Not to worry little Jedi, I won’t tell anyone,” the Sith winked. Despite her words being translated into Imperial Basic with a slight delay, the Sith had cut her off almost immediately.

Aleena remained wary, Sith and their promises weren’t worth anything if the Jedi Council was to be believed.

“And I am grateful, it’s been awhile since I had the opportunity to stretch my feet without being told how I needed saving. Unless that’s what you intend to do?” tilting his head, casting a mockingly pleading look at Aleena.

“I – no, that’s not my intention. You just felt…” Aleena wasn’t sure anymore what she had felt. He had seemed to be suffering, but now he was making jabs at her and seemed to be feeling rather well. But it could just be a front, Sith were, after all, master manipulators. Her fingers played with her Padawan braid, rolling the small yellow bead, while she wondered if she had made a mistake.

“Well in that case, I’m glad.” The Sith kept smiling, though there was something disingenuous about it. “Do you have water? I’m rather parched.”

Aleena looked around, even though she knew the room was empty except for the cage and the control panel, “I’m sorry, I don’t have anything.”

“Figures. I’m starting to think that bringing food and drink is just my normal visitors’ attempt to make me like them,” his eyes darkened, “not that it’s working. That uptight little leek of a Padawan’s only ability is to grate on my nerves.”

Aleena’s eyes narrowed, “You can’t talk about people like that! Do you have any idea how rude that is?” the Sith only raised his eyebrow as Aleena continued, “You – Wait, I thought only the Council was visiting you?”

The Sith smirked, “It seems you are not the only naughty Padawan. But I must admit, you are far better company than she is.”

“I’m not doing this because I’m ‘naughty’!”

“Oh, so you do have a permission from your Council? That’s rather convenient.”

Aleena blushed, “I’m only following the Jedi Code. Jedi must respect life in all forms, even when those forms themselves are incapable of doing the same.”

The Sith burst out laughing, “You truly believe that? That’s so sweet, and naïve, but sweet. You think the Jedi gleefully committing genocide thought so as well?”

“The Jedi have never done such a thing! It’s the Sith who always attack first, bend on conquering everything you touch.”

“Tell that to the children and the elderly, the civilians who were unfortunate enough to be on Korriban while the Republic razed it to the ground. We had already lost the War, but instead of offering peace terms, the Republic and your pathetic little Order decided to kill everyone. And to add to the insult, the Jedi were all too happy to exterminate any traces of our culture they could find.”

The Sith’s words didn’t ring of deception in the Force, but the Jedi couldn’t support a genocide, the Order stood for more than that. Despite knowing this, Aleena couldn’t help but remember what Master Fauren had once said to her: “Sometimes the Jedi do things that might not seem right at the time, but you must understand that they are necessary in our battle against the dark side.” He had seemed so tired at the time, his eyes almost apologetic.

“Well if that’s true, it was wrong of us.” The Sith looked sceptical at Aleena’s words. “But our mistakes in the past don’t justify the countless worlds you have enslaved, the innocents you have killed, or the genocides you have committed.”

“Slightly hypocritical coming from someone whose Order is currently trying to finish what they started all those years ago.”

Taking several brisky strides towards the cage, Aleena came almost face to face with the Sith, “We are not! All we are doing is defending innocent beings from you.”

“And all we wanted was our home back,” his eyes looked straight into Aleena’s, as if trying to convince her of his words.

“You certainly didn’t stop at the borders you had a thousand years ago.”

“After Korriban, it was a matter of self-defence. Or can you honestly say that the Jedi would have let us be, happy to have us as neighbours?”

“The lust for conquest is built into the dark side, you would never have been satisfied with the old borders. And we would have tried to show you another way, a less self-destructive one.”

“Well glad to see that good old Jedi indoctrination in action. You lack any true knowledge of the dark side, and your faith in the Jedi is misplaced.”

“How can you say that? The Jedi are guardians of peace, violence is the last option we want to take. Diplomacy and negotiations are always tried first.” Aleena sighted quietly, it seemed that despite what the Sith claimed, he was at least as ‘indoctrinated’ as she was.

“You are too young to remember that during the last war the Jedi were just as happy to slaughter their way through the galaxy. Can you truly justify killing people who were only protecting their loved ones by saying they were servants of ‘evil’? That it was for the ‘greater good’?”

“We always offered them the chance to surrender, and unlike you, we actually treat our prisoners well.”

A barking laughter cut the air, “Really? I would like to object to that. You know, based on recent personal experiences.”

Aleena could feel her cheeks warming, but before she had the chance to say something about the torture chambers that must have existed on Korriban, her comlink buzzed. Aleena took few steps back and turned her back on the Sith before answering the com.

“Aleena, I know it’s your turn to stand in watch, but unfortunately we had to reschedule the debrief. Report to the Council chambers within five minutes,” Master Aleusis’ voice rang clear in the room.

“Are you sure it can’t wait? I mean, this is important as well.”

“Unfortunately, no. Please come as quick as you can.”

“But –”

“Aleena, I know that you feel that it’s your responsibility to watch the prisoner, but this meeting is important. Important enough, that the Council is willing to leave the Sith unguarded for a moment,” despite sounding patient, Aleena could hear Master Aleusis was close to losing his.

“I – yes, Master,” Aleena’s shoulders slumping slightly as she ended the call.

“Trouble in paradise?”

Aleena glared at the Sith, “Just don’t go anywhere.”

“Force tell, where would I go?”

Aleena glanced at the Sith before hurrying out of the room, he sat on top of the stasis field generator, looking content, smiling as if nothing was wrong in the world. Aleena debated for a moment whatever to lock him back up in stasis, but considering she was already going to be late and had no desire to annoy her master further, she hurried out of the door. The dark side, thankfully, fading with each step, making it easier to breath. With any luck, she’d be back in half an hour, it’s not like he could really go anywhere.

***

The briefing had gone well enough, she hadn’t been late despite her fears, and had been able to avoid any lecture that that might have caused. But despite everything having gone well, Aleena couldn’t help but feel the Force moving restlessly, as if trying to tell her something. It made her uneasy as she hurried towards the Sith’s prison, the unsettling feeling only growing stronger with each step.

Aleena rounded the corner, the entrance clearly coming to view. The cell door was wide ajar, only an empty cage remained, its dark inhabitant long gone.


End file.
